[mou] Steel Co - Am Avocet, B-c Night-Heron, Snowy Egret

[Bob Ekblad]

I got a call from Jeff Stephenson this afternoon to let me know that he 
and Chuck Krulas had found an American Avocet at the small wetland just 
west of the entrance to Rice Lake State Park.  I made a run over this 
evening to see it.  The first bird I spotted as I drove up was a 
Black-crowned Night-Herron.  I figured the trip was worthwhile, even if 
the avocet wasn't there any more, but after a bit of sorting through the 
ducks I was fortunate to also see the avocet.  I was looking through the 
scope at the birds and I looked up to see something white on the 
shoreline that wasn't there before.  I put the scope on it and lo and 
behold it was a Snowy Egret.  Patagonia!   Just a few minutes later the 
snowy picked up and circled a couple of times and then headed toward 
Owatonna.  The avocet and heron were both still there when I left. 

There were also Sandhill Cranes calling just to the north of the pond.  
By the way, this is the same wetland where the Whooping Crane was 
hanging out for a while last year.  And speaking of cranes, John 
Morrision provided me with the URL for the Operation Migration website 
regarding the cranes introduced in Wisconsin.  It lists the color coding 
of the banding of the whoopers that had been seen in Meeker Co - #203 
and #215 (both females).  The URL is 
http://www.operationmigration.org/meet_2002_flock.html

-- 
Bob Ekblad
Olmsted County in SE Minnesota
http://home.rconnect.com/~ekblad/